BBC NEWS | UK | England | Kent | Heath's days in Kent remembered Heath's days in Kent remembered Sir Edward Heath learned to sail at Broadstairs in the 1950s Former Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath has been described as a shy man who loved sailing, by the ex-commodore of the club where he learned the sport. Sir Edward, who died on Sunday, was born in Broadstairs, Kent, in 1916. He was a keen sailor, winning the Admiral's Cup in the 1970s, and learned the sport at Broadstairs Sailing Club. Richard Noble, who was a commodore at the club, said Sir Edward was shy but was always relaxed when he came back to visit, even as prime minister. Mr Noble said: "He was a good sailor. He joined the club in 1952, was taught to sail by a chap called Gordon Knight who was a local schoolmaster.

It's a pity he didn't marry his girlfriend, but apparently she got a bit fed up waiting for him to pop the question Richard Noble, former commodore, Broadstairs Sailing Club "He owned a couple of dinghies here, a snipe called Blue Heather and subsequently a more exciting fireball called Blue Heather II. "He visited the sailing club at Broadstairs quite often when he was prime minister. "He used to have a beer and used to mix quite freely with people. I would think he probably felt more relaxed. "He often used visited the local pub on the pier where he was naturally very popular. Sir Edward Heath represented Old Bexley and Sidcup for over 50 years "It's a pity he didn't marry his girlfriend, but apparently she got a bit fed up waiting for him to pop the question." Mr Heath led the country from 1970 to 1974, when he was beaten by Labour, led by Harold Wilson. He was succeeded as Conservative leader by Margaret Thatcher. He represented the Old Bexley and Sidcup constituency, on the fringes of Kent and London, from 1950 until 2001.

Current Conservative Party leader Michael Howard, whose Folkestone and Hythe seat is in Kent, said: "He was one of the political giants of the second half of the 20th Century." "He was the last Conservative leader who served in World War II and undoubtedly his contribution, both before he became prime minister and as prime minister, to the political life of our country was enormous." Edward Richard George "Ted" Heath (1916 - 2005) - Genealogy Edward Richard George "Ted" Heath Birthdate: Broadstairs, Kent, England, United Kingdom Death: in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom Cause of death: Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom Immediate Family: July 9 1916 - Thanet, Kent, England Death: July 17 2005 - Salisbury, Canterbury, England Parents: William George Heath, Edith Annie Heath (born Pantony) Brother: Cause of death: Pneumonia - July 17 2005 - Salisbury Residence: William George Heath, Edith Anne Heath (born Pantony) Brother: Sir Edward Richard George "Ted" Heath, KG, MBE, PC (9 July 

1916 – 17 July 2005) was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1970–74) and as Leader of the Conservative Party (1965–75).

Born in Broadstairs, Kent, Heath studied at Oxford and served in the Second World War. He was first elected in the 1950 general election, for Bexley and was government Chief Whip during the 1950s. Entering the Cabinet as Minister of Labour in 1959, he was then Lord Privy Seal responsible for Macmillan's unsuccessful EEC entry negotiations, then President of the Board of Trade. In 1965 Heath won the leadership of the Conservative Party against Reginald Maudling and Enoch Powell. The general election of 1966 saw the Labour government of Harold Wilson achieve a large increase in seats, however Heath remained Conservative leader. Heath became Prime Minister after winning the 1970 general election. In 1971, Heath oversaw the decimalisation of British coinage and in 1972, he implemented major reform to the UK's system of local government. In foreign policy, Heath took the UK into the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973.

Heath's premiership oversaw the height of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, with the suspension of the Stormont parliament and the imposition of direct British rule. Unofficial talks with IRA delegates were unsuccessful, as was the Sunningdale Agreement of 1973, which caused Ulster Unionists to withdraw from the Conservative whip. Heath also attempted to curb union power with the Industrial Relations Act 1971, and had hoped to deregulate the economy and make a transfer from direct to indirect taxation. However rising unemployment in 1972 caused Heath to reflate the economy at the cost of high inflation, which he attempted to control by prices and incomes policy. Two miner's strikes in 1972 and 1974 proved damaging to the government, with the latter causing the implementation of the Three-Day Week to conserve energy. The general election in February 1974, an attempt to win a public mandate to face down the miners' wage demands, resulted in a hung parliament. Following a failed attempt to establish a coalition with the Liberals, Heath conceded power to a minority Labour government under Harold Wilson, which won a small majority in a second election in October that year.

Despite losing two general elections in one year, Heath aimed to continue as Conservative leader. In 1975 however, his former Education and Science Secretary Margaret Thatcher defeated Heath for leadership of the party. Returning to the backbenches, Heath became an active critic of Thatcher's policies as Prime Minister. He retired as an MP in 2001 and died in 2005. Heath was a world-class yachtsman and a musician of near-professional standard. He was also one of only four British Prime Ministers never to have married. Rt Hon Sir Edward Heath, KG, PC's Timeline 1916 Edward Heath - IMDb IMDb View rank on IMDbPro » Edward Heath (I) (1916–2005) Edward Heath was born in 1916 in Broadstairs, Kent. His father was a carpenter, his mother was a maid and his background was very modest. He attended Balliol College at Oxford, where he earned a second-class degree in philosophy, politics and economics. He got active in Conservative Party politics while at Oxford, but opposed Prime Minister ...

See full bio » Born: Margaret Thatcher | Facts Accomplishments Life View articles featuring Margaret Thatcher Margaret Thatcher Summary Margaret Thatcher was Great Britain’s first female prime minister, serving three consecutive terms in office 1979–1990. Her economic and social policies evolved into a political philosophy known as Thatcherism, similar to Reaganomics in the United States, and part of a world-wide neoliberal movement in the 1980s. She was dubbed the Iron Lady by a Soviet newspaper following a speech she gave in 1976—a nickname that she proudly claimed. Margaret Thatcher’s Early Life Margaret Hilda Roberts was born October 13, 1925, to Alfred and Beatrice Roberts in the market town of Grantham, Lincolnshire, England. Her parents ran a grocery business and lived in an apartment above the shop. They were Methodists who were very involved in the local congregation, raising Margaret and her older sister Muriel in an atmosphere that emphasized self-help, charity, and personal truthfulness. Alfred Roberts was a local councilor in Grantham and a Conservative, and the family would often discuss current political issues.

Margaret attended a local state school and won a place at Somerville College, Oxford, where she studied chemistry from 1943 to 1947. She was elected president of the student Conservative Association at Oxford in 1946 and met many prominent politicians. Her final year, she studied x-ray crystallography with Dorothy Hodgkin, who won a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1964. After obtaining her degree, Margaret became a research chemist at BX Plastics near Colchester. She was still highly involved in politics, and in the 1950 and 1951 General Elections she ran as the Conservative candidate for Dartford. Although she lost both times, she received national publicity as the youngest female candidate in the country. She also met her husband, Denis Thatcher, in Dartford. He was a local businessman and oil industry executive. After their marriage, Thatcher was able to resign her position at BX Plastics and become a lawyer specializing in taxation. On August 15, 1953, she gave birth to twins Mark and Carol and six months later passed the bar exam.

Thatcher Elected To Parliament In 1959, Thatcher was elected as Member of Parliament for Finchley. By 1961, she was given a junior office in the administration of Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister from January 1957 to October 1963. When the Conservatives were in Opposition from 1964-1970, Thatcher served continuously in various shadow cabinet positions and was appointed Education Secretary when Edward Heath became Prime Minister in 1970. The Heath government was elected on promises of economic revival that would be spurred by introducing more free market policies and taming the trade unions but became one of the most interventionist governments in British history. Thatcher herself faced a difficult job as Education Secretary at the height of student radicalism, with protesters disrupting her speeches, harsh criticism in the opposition press for not being liberal enough, and criticism from Conservatives for veering too far to the left.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher When the Heath Government lost a second General Election in October 1974, Thatcher decided to run against Heath for the leadership of the Conservative Party and won in February 1975, becoming the first woman to lead a Western political party and to be Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons. The economic difficulties experienced by the United Kingdom under the Labour government—requiring credit from the International Monetary Fund in 1976 and causing extensive trade union strikes over pay demands in the winter of 1978–1979—swung public opinion back to the favor of the Conservatives. In the General Election of May 1979, Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The Thatcher government had pledged to turn Britain’s economic decline around, mainly by increasing taxes and balancing the budget. By the spring of 1981, recovery had begun, followed by eight years of steady growth. Thatcher demonstrated her confidence, determination, and decisiveness again during the Falklands War—on April 2, 1982, Argentina invaded the British-held Falkland Islands and South Georgia Island.

Although she first pursued a diplomatic resolution, a British military task force was on-hand when that effort failed. The Falklands were back under British control in 74 days, with Argentina surrendering on June 14, 1982. The Conservative government was reelected in June 1983 with its Parliamentary majority more than tripled to 144 seats. The government faced as many challenges as it had during its first term. The labor movement resisted the government’s trade union reforms, with the miners’ union going on a violent, year-long strike beginning in 1984. The union was eventually defeated, and the Labour Opposition quietly accepted the success of the trade union legislation, pledging not to reverse key components. The IRA Bombing In October 1984, the Irish Republican Army bombed the hotel Thatcher and many of her cabinet were staying in during the Conservative Party annual conference. She had refused to meet their political demands, particularly during the 1980-1981 prison hunger strikes. Thatcher was unhurt although several colleagues were among the dead and injured, and she appeared the next morning, defiant and undeterred from continuing with the conference.

In 1985, she signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement with Irish Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald. The treaty established the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, which gave the Irish government an advisory role in Northern Ireland’s government and confirmed Northern Ireland’s constitutional position. Although the agreement did not immediately end violence in Northern Ireland, it was crucial in the peace process by improving cooperation between the British and Irish governments. Thatcher’s policies continued to help the economy improve. In the mid-1980s, the government began to privatize state assets by offering shares to the public and providing generous terms to small investors. It also encouraged people to buy their own homes, invest in private pensions, and save through the stock market. Divisions in the Conservative party became more apparent in the mid to late 1980s. The Westland Affair, a 1986 political scandal involving the buyout of financially troubled British helicopter manufacturer Westland, resulted in the resignation of two of Thatcher’s cabinet members. Thatcher was also heavily criticized for allowing US warplanes to fly from British bases to attack targets in Libya.

Undaunted by the criticism, Thatcher intimated plans for additional reforms during the Conservative Party’s annual conference in October 1986 and, thanks to her economic policies that resulted in a strong British economy, the Conservative Party prevailed again in the General Election in June 1987. Thatcher’s Third Term Thatcher’s third term in office was marked by reforms to the education system, National Health Service, and the local government tax system or poll tax, as it became known. At the same time, the end of the Cold War revived the project for a single European currency and long-standing divisions in the Conservative Party over this issue gave rise to a challenge to Thatcher’s leadership. In the ballot that followed, she won but by an insufficient margin and resigned as Prime Minister on November 28, 1990, choosing John Major as her successor. Margaret Thatcher’s Private Life She continued to be an active political figure, setting up the Margaret Thatcher Foundation to continue promoting her ideas, going on lecture tours, writing two memoirs and a book on international politics (Statecraft), and intervening in both domestic and international affairs.

On June 30, 1992, she was elevated to the House of Lords to become Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven. In March 2002, she retired from public speaking after several small strokes. Just over a year later, in June 2003, her husband of more than 50 years died, a devastating loss. Although she has retired from public speaking, the economic crisis in 2008 revived the debate over Thatcher’s policies from the 1980s and their lasting impact on the British economy. Articles Featuring Margaret Thatcher From British History Magazine [tabby title=’Featured Margaret Thatcher Article’] Margaret Thatcher: Iron Lady By Siân Ellis A Conservative minister later remarked that she “carried the authority of her office always with her. It was in her handbag….She was asserting it the whole time.” Just as Chamberlain had had his umbrella and Churchill his cigar, “Maggie’s” physical and metaphorical prop was her handbag. It contained crumpled notes full of facts and figures that could floor an interlocutor at 20 paces. “She cannot see an institution without hitting it with her handbag,” another observer wrote.

The “handbagger”—prime minister for 11 years, six months and 24 days (1979-90)—turned around the ruinously ailing British economy of the 1970s and shook the nation out of its demoralized slough. She broke the mold—she was the first woman prime minister in Europe and the longest-serving head of government in Britain in the 20th century. She achieved iconic status in the Conservative Party and, as the country’s representative, internationally. “Thatcherism” became a label not just for her aggressive “conviction” politics but also a byword for the changed spirit of the 1980s. It’s a paradox, then, how much Thatcher was an Establishment outsider. She herself noted, in her autobiography The Path to Power, “I was often portrayed as an outsider who by some odd mixture of circumstances had stepped inside and stayed there for eleven and a half years; in my case the portrayal was not inaccurate.” By virtue of her social and nonconformist religious background she was an outsider in the patrician Conservative Party. By her heretical economic views she was a minority voice.

By her individualism in the notoriously clubby world of politics, she generated suspicion. By her behavior in the European arena, she made heads of state bristle. By her very handbag, that symbol of femininity, she stood out from the male crowd of politicians. And by the fact that she wielded it with such masculine force she seemed an aberration of genteel womanhood. What shaped such individualism? Margaret Hilda Roberts was born October 13, 1925. Her father, Alfred, a self-made man, ran a grocery with his wife, Beatrice, in the provincial Lincolnshire market town of Grantham. They had an elder daughter, Muriel, born in 1921. Home was, Margaret recalled, “practical, serious and intensely religious.” Indeed life revolved around Methodism, with its churchgoing and music. Young Margaret became an accomplished pianist. This childhood living over the shop was “an idyllic blur,” with customers coming and going, Margaret helping to weigh out sugar, tea and coffee.

The grocer’s daughter learned the basic tenets of economics, and from her mother she absorbed the efficient, make-good-and-mend housekeeping of the self-respecting middle class, virtues accentuated by World War II privations. Her father was an upstanding figure in the community, a lay preacher, an independent town councilor and later alderman. “Individual responsibility was his watchword and sound finance his passion,” Margaret remembered. From him she claimed her integrity—and a fondness for homespun aphorisms. “Never do things just because other people do them” was a favorite, and it was to stand the Grantham girl in good stead. The family was “highly political,” and Margaret, aged just 10, could be found folding general election leaflets for a local Conservative candidate. At Kesteven and Grantham Girls’ (grammar) School she was a diligent but not star pupil; blessed with logic and determination, she shone in the debating society. She took elocution lessons—a pre-requisite for getting on in the world. Hers was also a dreamy nature. She loved Rudyard Kipling, the patriotic poet of British Empire, and the exotic worlds beyond Grantham that he portrayed.

And when the cinema arrived in town, she was entranced by Hollywood romance, reflecting that maybe it was a “fortunate restraint” that she was not allowed to watch films too often. Margaret won a place to study chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, in 1943. She cut a rather serious, slightly lonely figure: work, religion and, increasingly, politics filled her time rather than socializing. In 1946 she became president of the Oxford University Conservative Association—only the second female to hold the post in its history. Strange, perhaps, that a middle-class grammar school girl should be drawn to an essentially public school-dominated party. But its dicta, such as self-reliance, appealed to her. When she left Oxford with a second-class chemistry degree, she joined BX Plastics near Colchester to work in research and development. However, she knew her true ambition was to be a member of Parliament. She got her wish, after a struggle, in 1959 when she was elected Conservative MP for Finchley, north London. It had been a busy decade post-Oxford: in 1951 she wed Denis Thatcher, a well-to-do businessman and divorcé 10 years her senior.

Early married life was “very heaven,” and in ensuing years in a series of homes in London and Kent she enjoyed interior decorating, gardening and collecting porcelain. Denis’ income meant Margaret no longer needed to earn a living, and she studied law. In 1953 she gave birth to twins, Mark and Carol; by the time they were 6 months old she had passed her bar exams. “While the home must always be the centre of one’s life, it should not be the boundary of one’s ambitions,” she liked to say. Fortunately, the Thatchers could afford a nanny to allow this. The London Evening News heralded Margaret Thatcher’s entry into Parliament with the headline “Mark’s Mummy is an MP Now.” Women were a rarity at this level of politics—just 25 of 630 MPs—and Thatcher was given various shadow cabinet positions in “women’s” areas such as pensions. In the 1970 Conservative government under Edward Heath, she became secretary of state for education and science (1970-74). Sadly, neither her father nor her mother had lived to see this success.

“The fifties marked the start of a major change in the role of women,” Thatcher reflected in her autobiography. In the male preserve of the House of Commons and in the cabinet she felt isolated. Her strident tone, perhaps an overcompensation as she tried to prove herself, further alienated male colleagues. Yet there were plus-points to being different. Blonde, attractive, always immaculately dressed and a zealous worker, she stood out and was for some while a media darling. The tide turned when as education secretary, forced to cut her budget, she stopped the provision of free milk to schoolchildren over the age of 7. Tabloid headlines raged “Mrs. Thatcher, Milk Snatcher” and asked if she was the most hated woman in Britain. She was deeply upset. The Heath government fell in 1974 amid rising inflation and labor unrest. Keith Joseph, the right-wing intellectual who set up the Centre for Policy Studies to analyze Britain’s economic problems and devise a remedy, appeared set to challenge Heath as Conservative leader. He bungled his chances however, and unexpectedly Thatcher, one of his most ardent supporters, stepped into the breach.

On February 11, 1975, she won the contest to head the Conservative Party. Reactions were mixed. None of the party heavyweights had voted for Thatcher, and the victory, “the Peasants’ Revolt,” was thought a brief seizure of power by the lower orders. She was “trade” after all. Others welcomed the rise of a grocer’s daughter, believing it would help redress the Conservatives’ stuffy image. Thatcher continued her lifelong makeover: changing hairstyle, clothes and, through further voice coaching, lowering her voice from its gratingly high pitch to a more commanding contralto. But the greatest boost to her reputation came following a speech she made in 1976 criticizing the Soviet Union when the Red Army newspaper Jrasbata Zvezda (Red Star) dubbed her “the Iron Lady.” Instantly, an icon was born.

She trumpeted the role, later addressing a public meeting, “I stand before you tonight in my Red Star chiffon evening gown, my face softly made up and my fair hair gently waved: the Iron Lady of the Western World!” When Thatcher was elected Britain’s first female prime minister on May 4, 1979, it was against a background of soaring inflation, bitter labor disputes, rising unemployment and declining trade figures—a result of the collectivist and consensus policies that both Labour and Conservative postwar governments had pursued. Influenced by her upbringing and, now, the ideas of Keith Joseph and American economist Milton Friedman, Thatcher was set on what became known as monetarism and, through her implementation, Thatcherism. This economic theory advocated individual enterprise and a reduction in state intervention. State-subsidized industry and jobs instilled no incentive to compete, put too much money into the economy and encouraged inflation. Thatcherism valued individual responsibility: Taxes and government spending on state-provided welfare should be lower to allow individuals to use their money to support themselves as they choose. The state should be servant, not master. Thatcher ushered in a decade of painful reform, privatization, deregulation and tax cutting.

At first inflation and unemployment rocketed, some businesses crumbled. But—“the lady’s not for turning”—the prime minister brazened it out over three historic terms of office, wrenching the economy back off its knees. At least one widely popular measure was the sale of council houses, allowing by 1982 a half-million people to become homeowners (and possibly Tory voters) for the first time. Paradigmatic of Thatcher’s ruthless resolve—and crucial to the success of monetarism—was her defeat of the National Union of Mine Workers, which, in March 1984, called a strike over plans to close unprofitable pits. The threat to the national fuel supply raised the specter of an ungovernable country. The strike lasted a year and saw police and miners in ugly pitched battles. But Thatcher had stockpiled coal reserves, ready to defend democracy against her bête noire of socialism, the militant trade unions. She won. Whole mining communities suffered badly, yet the greater community of democratic Britain survived. Tougher legislation was later introduced to curb future union power. The general mood of the country, fed up with disruptive strikes, was with Thatcher on the need for change.

The prime minister was equally tough in 1984 when an Irish Republican Army bomb meant for her exploded in the Brighton hotel where Tory Party members were staying overnight for their annual conference. Having hardly slept, she appeared on the conference platform the next day, neatly dressed and made up, defiant that democratic business should continue. The image went around the world. If defeating the unions epitomized Thatcher on the domestic front, then victory against Argentina in the Falkland Islands was a key event abroad. Few people had even heard of the tiny British dependency (population 1,800) near Cape Horn, but invasion by Argentina in April 1982 offended every patriotic fiber in Thatcher’s body. Raised on the Churchillian belief that Britain was capable of epic things on the world stage, she sent ships to retake the islands. By mid-June the war was won—at a cost of 255 British lives. Principle had been upheld; a new sense of national confidence emerged. Thatcher’s flagging popularity ratings also benefited. Less spectacular but truly far-reaching was Thatcher’s role in bringing about the end of the Cold War and contributing to the demise of communism in Central and Eastern Europe.

As an individualist and free market advocate, she had an innate and frequently voiced distrust of communism. In Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, however, she found a man she “could do business with,” and she helped to persuade President Ronald Reagan away from “evil Empire” rhetoric to do the same. The chemistry between Reagan and Thatcher made their alliance a high point of the special relationship between Britain and the United States in the 20th century. “She was warm, feminine, gracious and intelligent and it was evident from our first words that we were soul mates when it came to reducing government and expanding economic freedom,” Reagan remarked. Instinctively an Atlanticist, Thatcher was less easy about European union. She demanded—and got—a refund on Britain’s excessive contributions to the European Economic Community with a belligerence that set the tone for future negotiations. While in favor of a common market, she resisted measures that could inch member countries toward a federalist super state and erode British sovereignty. Britain would stand aside from mainstream integration. Behind the scenes, Thatcher had an awesome work ethic. She slept only four hours a night and “living over the shop” at 10 Downing St.

suited her (there’s a delicious irony in a grocer’s daughter running a “nation of shopkeepers”). She quickly mastered briefs in minute detail and was intolerant of “woolly” thinking. Yet, despite popular opinion to the contrary, she could be persuaded by others’ views—if well argued. Behind the hectoring caricatures—Attila the Hen, TBW (That Bloody Woman)—a far more charming, feminine side existed and was employed to get her own way. “Perhaps we were a little bit in love with her,” one young man who worked for her recalled. She enjoyed male company, female less so (the Queen was said to dislike their weekly meetings). Staff at No. 10 adored her for the thousand small kindnesses she showed, such as asking after the health of an ailing family member. This was not the uncaring tyrant of cartoonists. On occasion she appeared blissfully unstreetwise, most famously when she declared in admiration of her faithful deputy, Willie Whitelaw, “Every prime minister needs a Willie.” Thatcher’s home life, indeed her career, had the firm anchor of her husband Denis.

The media affectionately portrayed him as a gin-swilling, golf-playing buffoon, but he fulfilled his role of consort to perfection, content to support, a silent smile on his face. He had helped give the Grantham girl social confidence, and his money had allowed her to chase her ambition; his own success meant he felt unthreatened by her achievement. He encouraged, advised, gave the arm that consoled, and he alone could call late-night meetings to a close, tapping his watch and reminding, “Margaret, time for Bedfordshire.” In the morning, Margaret would cook his breakfast. She also doted on her son, Mark; relations with Carol seemed a little less close. The public rarely glimpsed any chinks in the Iron Lady’s armor, and in the end she stayed too long in power. She was perceived to be arrogant, dictatorial, contemptuously handbagging her cabinet colleagues. She badly misjudged when she introduced the notorious poll tax despite advice against it; she openly clashed with her chancellor over monetary policy and with her foreign secretary on European policy. Both resigned, precipitating a party leadership battle, which concluded in Thatcher’s resignation on November 28, 1990.

She was cast back outside. For once the tears were public as she left 10 Downing St. Elevated to the House of Lords, she styled herself Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven in honor of her roots. She set up the Margaret Thatcher Foundation to continue to promote her ideas and undertook lecture tours; she was particularly gratified by her welcome in the United States, “the seat of radical modern conservative thinking and almost my second home.” After a series of small strokes, doctors advised her in 2002 against public speaking. In 2003 Denis, her constant companion, died; they had been married 52 years. More than any political knocks, it was a devastating loss. Margaret Thatcher and Thatcherism often evoke visceral love or hate. She was a role model for individualism and the success of the individual who worked hard—not always an easy trajectory in a nation of team players where traditionally it’s the playing, not the winning, that counts. Some said her policies legitimized selfishness. Feminists murmured that she failed to help other women break into public life—women were notably absent from high office in her governments. But that missed the point of her individualism, and she led by example.

Her legacy, like her life, is one of paradox. A force for change, she saved her country from the economic mire and made it governable again, but threw the Conservative Party into turmoil. She altered national attitudes: After monetarism there has been no return to Keynesian economics, and Britain is no longer the sick country of Europe. She consolidated the Atlantic Alliance and helped create the dynamics of the post–Cold War world, but left the Tory Party—and the country—deeply divided on Europe and integration into its union. However these legacies play out, Margaret Thatcher will be seen as an icon of the 20th century and one of Britain’s outstanding peacetime prime ministers.

[tabby title=’More Margaret Thatcher Articles’][srp widget_title=”” widget_css_id=”testing-grid” post_type=”post” post_content_type=”content” post_content_length=”50″ post_content_length_mode=”words” post_title_length=”12″ post_title_length_mode=”words” post_date=”no” post_offset=”1″ category_include=”199″ string_break=” More…” layout_mode=”multi_column” srp post_limit=”200″ display_thumbnail=”no” vf_everything=”no”][tabbyending] Copyright 2014 British Heritage. Margaret Thatcher, horoscope for birth date 13 October 1925, born in Grantham, with Astrodatabank biography - Astro-Databank photo: work provided by Chris Collins of the Margaret Thatcher Foun, license cc-by-sa-3.0 Biography British politician who became the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and was one of the most powerful women in the world in the latter part of the 20th century.

The woman who would be later nicknamed "The Iron Lady" was born Margaret Hilda Roberts in a flat above the family grocery store in a town some 100 miles north of London. Her father went on to own two grocery stores and was active in politics. She acquired a love for music from her mother, a dressmaker. She has an older sister, Muriel. A self-confident child, she skipped a grade in elementary school and won a scholarship to Kesteven and Grantham Girls’ Schools at the age of ten. She almost always led her class academically, and also served as captain of games and vice-captain of the hockey team. During holidays, she helped out at the family grocery store, and spent spare time reading about politics and international affairs. She sat in on court sessions over which her father presided, studied the piano, and took private elocution lessons. During the 1935 general election, she ran errands for the local Conservative party organization, her first real exposure to politics. She was educated at Somerville College at the University of Oxford, where she studied chemistry and X-ray crystallography, sang in the Bach choir and kept up with politics.

In 1946, she was elected president of the Oxford University Conservative Association. She graduated with a B. S. degree in natural science in 1947, and has an M. A. degree from Oxford. She worked as a research chemist developing plastics from 1947 to 1951. In 1949, she was invited to become the Tory candidate for Parliament from Dartford, Kent during a forthcoming election. She didn’t win, but her name became more known. In 1951, she began studying law in her spare time, and in 1953, having studied for the bar, she became a tax lawyer specializing in taxation and patent law. By 1957, she wanted to renew her election bid to Parliament and ran in Finchley, an upper-middle-class north London constituency. She joined the Conservative party in Britain, and was elected to the House of Commons on 10/08/1959. In 1961, she was appointed Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance, where she remained until 1964.

Following a lull when the opposite party returned to power, she became minister of education and science from 1970 to 1974 under Edward Heath, provoking a storm of protest by abolishing free milk in the schools. After the defeat of the Conservatives in 1974, she challenged Heath for the party leadership and won the post on 2/11/1975. On 5/04/1979, she was elected prime minister, leading her party to victory with an agenda to reverse Britain’s economic decline and reduce the role of government: It was the largest switch in votes since 1945. On 4/02/1982, when Argentine forces occupied the Falkland Islands, which were claimed by both Argentina and England, Thatcher’s government defeated the Argentines. Her Falkland Islands policy provided the Conservatives with a sweeping victory and she began her second term as prime minister 9/09/1982. In October 1984, she barely escaped injury when a bomb planted by Irish extremists exploded in the Grand Hotel during a conference.

She was victorious on 6/11/1987 and became the first British prime minister in the 20th century to serve three consecutive terms. But in 1990, her tax policy and reluctance to commit England to full economic integration with Europe inspired a challenge to her leadership. She resigned on 11/22/1990, and was succeeded as party leader and prime minister by protégé John Major. She married Denis Thatcher, heir to a prosperous paint and wallpaper firm, in 1951. He was a fellow member of the Dartford Conservative organization and took pride in her political ambitions. In May 1953, they had twin children, Mark, a London accountant, and Carol, who completed her law studies in 1975. Her new book, "Statecraft" was published in February 2002. During the early months of the year, Thatcher had a series of small strokes and on 3/19/2002, on her doctor's orders, she cancelled a speaking engagement as the first step in cutting down on her public activities. The husband of the former U.K.

Prime Minister died on June 26, 2003 in London. Sir Denis Thatcher was 88 years old and had been in poor health. Just five months prior to his death, he had heart bypass surgery. Thatcher suffered from poor health for several years before her death. On 21 December 2012, she underwent an operation to remove a growth from her bladder. Thatcher died in the morning of 8 April 2013 in London after suffering a stroke.

Lord Bell, Thatcher's spokesman, confirmed her death at 12:52 BST (11:52 UTC) by press release associate relationship with Schapiro, Leonard (born 22 April 1908) opponent/rival/enemy relationship with Callaghan, James (born 27 March 1912) opponent/rival/enemy relationship with Fitzgerald, Garret (born 9 February 1926) opponent/rival/enemy relationship with Kinnock, Neil (born 28 March 1942) parent->child relationship with Thatcher, Mark (born 15 August 1953) (has as) boss relationship with Heath, Edward (born 9 July 1916) (has as) worker relationship with Aitken, Jonathan (born 30 August 1942) (has as) worker relationship with Hague, William (born 26 March 1961) (has as) worker relationship with Lang, Ian Bruce (born 27 June 1940).

Notes: Government Minister (has as) worker relationship with Major, John (born 29 March 1943) compare to chart of Brown, Janet (born 14 December 1923) role played of/by Streep, Meryl (born 22 June 1949) Events

Question: Which 20th century British Prime Minister was born in Broadstairs, Kent?
Answer: Edward Heath